Professionals in Sweden are, in fact, lying about their children being sick to take advantage of government subsidies.

The Swedish government provides salary to parents who stay at home to look after their children if they are ill.

It is called ‘VAB’, which stands for ‘vård av barn’ (care of children).

After the Swedish Social Insurance Agency launched a crackdown on parents faking their children being sick, a record number of parents were caught cheating the benefits system, getting paid at work while claiming benefits.

A total of 530 mums and dads were suspected of attempting to cheat the system last year.

In the first few months of this year, the agency has already filed police reports on 400 parents, including 241 mothers, The Local reported.

Parents have, so far, this year, been asked to pay back 32.4 million kronor ($3.92 million) in wrongful payouts and damages.

In November, Niklas Löfgren, family economics spokesperson at the Social Insurance Agency, told The Local that media should not jump to the conclusion that Swedish parents are getting greedier.

He said the rise is likely caused by the agency stepping up its work to crack down on benefit crimes.

“It’s important to note that most people do behave,” he said.

When asked about some of the strangest claims the agency has received he said: “We did have one person last year who asked why she wasn’t allowed to claim ‘VAB’ to look after her dog. But no, that didn’t work.”